While Asus has seen relative success with their Transformer line of products, and the Nexus 7, the Padfone has yet to make a real impact. Both the Padfone and Padfone 2 failed to make quite the splash Asus was hoping for, but they aren’t giving up yet. Announced at Mobile World Congress, Asus has just debuted the next generation Padfone, the Padfone Infinity, and a new addition to their lineup, a huge 7-inch phone known as the Fonepad.

Essentially the Padfone 3 with some marketing hype attached, the Padfone Infinity is the next entry in Asus’ tablet-docking smartphone series. As with previous Padfone devices, the Infinity is comprised of a high-end smartphone and a tablet dock, giving consumers the ease of having to manage only one device, but the flexibility of multiple screen sizes. As for the specs on the Padfone Infinity, Asus has included a 5-inch 1080p display this time around, as well as a quad-core 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 Processor, 2GB RAM, a 13 megapixel camera, 2 megapixel front-facing camera, 2400mAh battery, as much as 64GB of on-board storage and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

Previous Padfones have never suffered from a lack of premium components, and neither does the Padfone Infinity. What the Padfone Infinity does suffer from, however, is limited availability. Once again, the Padfone Infinity doesn’t look to be headed for the US. With a hefty price tag of â‚¬999, importers will have to be willing to pay an arm and a leg once it becomes available overseas.

The Padfone Infinity wasn’t the only device announced by Asus as Mobile World Congress. The Taiwanese company is taking the old saying, “bigger is better,” to heart, with the unveiling of the 7-inch Fonepad.

Coming in with a 1280×800 7-inch IPS display, 1.2GHz Atom Z2420 processor, 1GB RAM, 4270mAh battery, 3 megapixel camera, 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera and 3G Connectivity, the Fonepad is one of the biggest devices we’ve ever seen marketed as a phone. The recently announced Galaxy Note 8 features phone capabilities, but Asus is really driving those features home.

The Fonepad will be released this March in titanium gray and champagne gold, with the 8GB model starting at just $249USD. Unlike the Padfone Infinity, there’s a good chance the Fonepad could be making its way stateside.

Do either of Asus’ new products sound good to you? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Gallery

Enjoy this hilarious video from the announcement courtesy of Android Police.

Most Tweeted This Week

VS

I’d love to get my hands on this device, but have never imported before. Suggestion for A&M article on tutorial how to on importing and references would be very helpful. I know I could just do a web search, but first hand account references are always preferred.

uknowme

Why oh why can’t a Padfone be released in the states? Drives me nuts. I would love one but I don’t want to have to import the device.

kazahani

I would love a small tablet that makes phone calls. Just find a good bluetooth headset to use for making calls, and type good to go!

kazahani

Damn you, autocorrect!

scubabum

It would be nice to be able to make regular calls from a tablet (other than using Google Voice).
But the 7-inch form factor is still quite big for the pants pocket.

kazahani

If ever there was an acceptable reason for the man-purse, this is it!

Vance

I’d buy a Padfone Infinity if it came stateside.

R.S

Even though it’ll only come with 1 gb of ram, for $249, the Asus FonePad well be very tempting!

Burnd

Is it me or does the phone kinda look like the iPhone 4?

pjamies

Sorry, they just keep doing the same thing, and the answer is: ‘just not that interested’!
and what is with that video?, it tells me nothing about the device!

Nathan D.

I always found this product support cool, and wish I could get the whole set.

donger

This looks interesting.

Sam

Just want to point out that, according to Asus Facebook Taiwan, the padfone infinity in NOT padfone 3.

Matt

How to they expect to leave a mark when they don’t sell the thing stateside?

Either way with that big a screen and that small a battery no thanks..

robwhittaker

the reason the padfone didn’t sell is lack of marketing and you can’t actually buy the thing anywhere

Paul

I love the padfone and the concept. Switch from phone to tablet. Although I wish they didn’t lose the keyboard feature, turn it into a mini laptop. But unless it comes to the U.S it’s kind of pointless for me.

chris

I would rather have a HD screen rather than full HD and have a bigger battery.!
4.5-4.7 inch hd screen and 3000mah battery. Thank you.

Peter

The original Padfone was a wonderful device with and simply needed the the hardware updated, instead they released the Padfone 2 wich lacked many of the features that made the original great and are found on modern smart phone. The padfone 3 is just a souped up number 2. I was hoping that they were reintroducing the features of the Padfone 1 with the new release, namely a keyboard dock, stylus and expandable memory, but the new Padfone 3 offers none of these features, i will NOT be buying this.

ASUS you created something fantastic with the original PadFone, and now you have just runied it, well done.